We're doomed...

Just received this in an email!!!...

Doom metal legends TROUBLE and PENTAGRAM will team up for the "Doom Over Europe" tour starting in late September. Confirmed dates are as follows:

Sep. 30 - Knaack Club - Berlin, Germany
Oct. 01 - The Rock - Copenhagen, Denmark
Oct. 02 - Markthalle - Hamburg, Germany
Oct. 03 - Turock - Essen, Germany
Oct. 04 - Glazart - Paris, France
Oct. 05 - Z7 - Pratteln, Switzerland
Oct. 07 - Diesel Club - Budapest, Hungary
Oct. 08 - Masters Of Rock - Zlin, Czech Republic
Oct. 09 - Rosenkeller - Jena, Germany
Oct. 10 – [to be announced] - Bielefeld, Germany
Oct. 11 - Nachtleben - Frankfurt, Germany
Oct. 12 - Club O13 - Tilburg, Netherlands
Oct. 13 - Kultuzentrum - Hanover, Germany
Oct. 14 - Underworld - London, England
Oct. 17 - Hammer Of Doom Fest - Wurzburg, Germany

Osbourne Vs Iommi

 

Thee Claw has this to say: Osbourne 8,  Iommi 18.

There's only one person deserving to use the name Black Sabbath, and he hasn't been in a reality TV show.

Off to listen to Mob Rules now.

Prepare Yourselves....

...for some piss poor cash in black metal that will make Thee Claw very, very upset*

Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Count Grishnackh), the former BURZUM mastermind who was convicted of murdering MAYHEM guitarist Oystein Aarseth (a.k.a. Euronymous) in August 1993 and setting fire to three churches, is a free man.

"I can confirm that I have been released from prison," Vikernes told Norway's Dagbladet.

Although his parole application was denied four times — most recently in September 2008 — Vikernes received word in February that he would be released after serving almost 16 years in prison. He was finally allowed to leave a couple of weeks ago, according to Dagbladet.

"I will have to report [to the parole officer] for one year — initially every two weeks, and then once a month," Vikernes said.

For the past couple of years, Varg had been allowed to leave the prison regularly to walk around Tromsø, Norway (where the prison is located) and visit his family.

Last year it was reported that case workers at the Justice Ministry feared that Vikernes would be unable to adjust to life on the outside after his years in jail.

"I'm ready for society — and I have been for many years," Vikernes told Dagbladet last July. "I have learned from my mistakes and become older. Now I just want to be together with my family."

He added, "My mind has never been in prison; I think all the time about what I should do on the day that I am released.

"I have barely seen my son since he came into the world. Even though I hear his voice on the phone almost every day, it is very tough to not be present while he is growing up.

"I miss my family. And I look forward the day that I could work on my farm, create music, write books and be with the wife and kids around the clock — and live a normal life.

A photo of Varg Vikernes's new home in Bø, a municipality in the county of Telemark, Norway, can be viewed below (picture courtesy of Varden.no). Vikernes purchased the farm sometime last year and is planning to spend most of his time on the property with his French wife and son, both of whom had already been living at the home for quite some time.

"As I respect others, I want others to respect me," Varg told Varden.no last summer. "We are really quite ordinary people, and we do not want any more attention than anyone else."

Upcoming Crust Hell

Metal Master

Your mission (if you choose to accept it) is to identify all of the heavy metal records on the wall in this photograph and make it your duty to listen to them all.

EDIT:

Here's what we have figured out so far:

ASIANA - Out On The Street (1990)
BREEZE LEAST - Breeze Least (1986)
CUTTY SARK - Hard Rock Power E.P. (1983)
DARK HAZE - Five Years E.P. (1988)
HELLEN - Talon Of King (1985)
JUPITER - Jupiter (1987)
LEVITICUS - Jag Skall Segra (1983)
METALWOLF - Down to the Wire (1986)
PALASS - Queen Of The World (1989)
POKOLGEP - Pokoli Színjáték (1987)
ROAD - Breaking Out (1986)
SABBRABELLS - Sabbrabells (1983)
SHERWOOD - Riding The Rainbow E.P. (1986)
SIFON - 100 Høíchù (1991)
STRESS - Stress (1982)
TARANTULA - Tarantula (1987)

Photos Of People Taking Photos

Church Of Misery - War Is Our Destiny

Look out for Patchie stagediving at the 4 minute 20 mark...

Church Of Misery @ Manchester S&G... Thee Claw's G.O.T.Y.??

We went along to the Star & Garter (a wonderous place, set deep in Manchester's red light district) to witness a really great gig this evening... Charger, Firebird & Church Of Misery.

It's late in the night now (early in the morning really) and I have work still to do, so I won't have time to give you a blow-by-blow about the show and the sets played by each band. But already this is a sure-fire contender for our gig of thee year.

But one thing is for sure: We certainly don't like how many Down hoodies we are seeing in our path lately! THEE CLAW says: Down with Gegcore.

Black Sun @ Roadburn - A Slideshow Video

Black Sun Roadburn 2009 slideshow - Pics by Steven Walley

Hahaha, how mad it looks! THEE CLAW loves Powerviolence and BLACK SUN offers it up in spades.

Hailz ti Glasgee!

Logo Credits

Thanks to DVoid for the logo that now sits atop of thee blog. Simple, iconic, clawsome as fuck.

Go check out d[esign]Void dot com.

Chainsaw Fuckin Charlie

In Liverpool?
Need a tree chopping down?
Like W.A.S.P.?
Well look no further!

Thee Unholy Parade Of Saint Vitus Tattoos

The amount of Saint Vitus tattoos that I saw at Roadburn this year was just stupifying. Every other person at that event had ink on display and every other one of those had a Vitus tatt. And the ones who did have a physical scarring proving their loyalty to The Brotherhood made sure that they had photos taken *with* the Vitus guys, proudly displaying their ink. Wino must get it all the damn time. "Hey dude, can I get my photo with you? Check this out, I've got a big V on my arm! V for Vitus!" Wino: "Man if I had a nickle for every damn Vitus tattoo I've seen, I'd be a fucking Rockerfeller." Don't get me wrong here, I dig the commitment it takes to get this kinda shit etched into your body for the rest of your life. But seriously... every other tattoo was Vitus related. Serious Vitus geeks in 20 different languages must have been creaming in their grubby ripped jeans thanks to their 2009 European tour. Hey look, there's Armando! Hey Armando dude, come here and check out my fuckin' arm.....

Good news if you were there (or, even if you were not)

"British gothic metal pioneers PARADISE LOST will releasing their demos, "Paradise Lost" (1988) and "Frozen Illusion" (1989), on CD. These raw recordings, which saw the band still firmly rooted in the field of doomy death metal, are being accompanied by six live tracks from the "Plains Of Desolation" bootleg, which has never been officially released as well. All songs have been digitally remastered and the release is strictly limited!


Guitarist Greg Mackintosh states: "Well what can I say about the re-release of our demos? This delves right down into our murky, sludgy beginnings. They may not be the best-produced demos ever, but they really sum up the raw honesty of a very exciting time in the U.K. and European underground heavy music scene. We always preferred our demos to our first album as we felt that the demos more succinctly captured the 'wallowing in a quagmire' sound. Hopefully these recordings will be taken for what they are ...the prime evil foundations of what was later to become gothic metal!"


Featuring extensive liner notes by vocalist Nick Holmes and a stunning vinyl replica packaging, "Drown In Darkness - The Early Demos" is a must-have for every PARADISE LOST fan and despite all its roughness, a sonic manifest of the early days of one of the most influential metal bands ever!


"Drown In Darkness - The Early Demos" (57:26) track listing:


01. Drown In Darkness (4:38)
02. Internal Torment (5:05)
03. Morbid Existence (2:38)
04. Paradise Lost (5:24)
05. Internal Torment (5:40)
06. Frozen Illusion (5:16)
07. Internal Torment (live) (4:40)
08. Our Saviour (live) (5:56)
09. Plains Of Desolation (live) (4:10)
10. Drown In Darkness (live) (4:37)
11. Paradise Lost (live) (5:34)
12. Nuclear Abomination (live) (3:48)


Tracks 1-3 taken from the "Paradise Lost" demo (1988)
Tracks 4- 6 taken from the "Frozen Illusion" demo (1989)
Tracks 7- 12 taken from the "Plains Of Desolation" bootleg (1989)


"Drown In Darkness - The Early Demos" will be released via Century Media Records in Europe on May 25, 2009!"

HEAVEN & HELL, The Devil You Know, 2009

THEE CLAW PLOD SAYS FUCKING BUY THIS ALBUM YOU 'ORRIBLE BASTARDS!!!!
This is the best metal album I've heard in years. This is Black Sabbath at it's best, if you liked 1992's excellent Dehumanizer album then you'll love The Devil You Know.
Nice production, big sound, Vinny Appice's heavy drums nice and loud, Geezer Butler's bass right up in the mix, Tony Ioomi riffing better than ever and Ronnie James Dio's best recorded vocals in 17 years.
Nuff said, just buy it!

SAXON, Doro, Sweet Savage. Manchester Academy, May 3rd 2009

A big sign on the door greets the punters through the door as soon as they walk in, "SAXON SOLD OUT", thank fuck I bought my ticket about 9 months ago, the only problem is that I'm on my own again.
For the third Saxon UK tour in a row I attended the manchester date on my own, not necessarily a bad thing cos Saxon gigs, in my honest opinion, get better as I attend them.
A surprise for me was the addition of another support band that I hadn't heard about and on the timetables printed out about the place it said SWEET SAVAGE, now there were 2 Sweet Savages, one was a gay glam metal band from america and the other was a new wave metal band from ireland which featured guitarist Vivian Campbell (a future member of Dio and Def Leppard), I prayed it would be the Irish band, then soon after at the bar I saw people getting their photos taken with guitarist Ian Speedo Wilson!!! I was chuffed to fuck!!!



I was quite disappointed with the set though, they only had time to do 4 songs but the new stuff sounds great and they finished with a good heavy cover of Whiskey In The Jar. They didn't even play Killing Time, short but sweet!!!





Took a quick trip to the merch table via the bar while the crew set up for DORO and returned to the same speck near the front where I stood before and there was excitement building, Doro's fans were out in force and she didn't disappoint. Opening up with the Warlock classic Earthshaker Rock, Doro taught us all a lesson in putting on a proper metal show, Doro Pesch is gorgeous in the flesh and her live vocals are brilliant, her backing band were spot on, the crowd in attendance were not let down, I hope she gets a proper headlining UK tour sorted soon cos I'd love to watch that band again!!! It was great to hear some old Warlock stuff like Burning The Witches and All We Are so I could have a singalong, top notch!!!





After about 30 minutes of waiting, the venue went pitch black and the intro from SAXON's new album started up with some moody lighting, blasting into new song Batallions Of Steel it was awesome to see most of the crowd knew this new masterpiece. This crowd were excited and on form! The band were gobsmacked by the crowd reaction to every single song, obviously all the classics got amazing receptions from the crowd but even new tunes like Demon Sweeny Todd got treated as a classic!!!






I find it fucking brilliant that they took a song (Ride Like The Wind) off their worst album (Destiny) and made it fucking rock to the point where it was best song of the night and got the loudest singalong off the audience. They mentioned that song has probably never been played in england before but it was pure gold!!!



Saxon are well known for not sticking to their setlists, we got a choice, Biff said "You can either have Dallas 1pm (which got a very loud cheer) or you can have The Power And The Glory" (even louder cheer) we got both tunes played and even more choices later on, Biff gave us the choice of Backs To The Wall or Machine Gun but the crowd were screaming for Crusader, so Paul Quinn started doing the crusader intro and the crowd went nuts. We also got the obvious songs like Denim and leather, 747, Wheels Of Steel and Princess Of, The Night but my favourites Strong Arm Of The Law and Never Surrender were played too, a fucking perfect gig.
Keep them tours coming Biff lad!!!

Vibrating Vessels

Only 7 seconds long, but that's more than long enough for you to get the idea. This was a loud gig.